City Editor, The Age

THE partial collapse of a concrete slab at a city construction site has stopped work, with engineers called in to investigate.

Grocon is building the Emporium shopping centre in Lonsdale Street, on the site of the old Myer store. The $290 million project was beset by industrial problems in August after unions and the builder clashed.

On Monday, workers were pouring a concrete floor when a three-metre section partially collapsed, sinking around 60 centimetres. There were no injuries, but WorkSafe was called in to investigate.

A Grocon spokesman, Michael Zorbas, denied there had been a collapse. ''A visible depression has occurred in the slab during a routine concrete pour,'' he said, adding that expert engineers were called in to propose a plan to fix the fault.

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The dispute in August between Grocon and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union was sparked by disagreement over the appointment of shop stewards at the company's sites.

The union's acting state secretary, John Setka, said Grocon was ''a disaster waiting to happen'' because it did not allow employees to nominate safety officials on its sites. But Grocon says its employees did elect their safety representatives.